February 2, 2012 - Oh, The Possibilities

I'm definitely leaning toward the garden redo this spring. Barbie asked where the new beds would be in the garden plan I posted yesterday. I'm not planning on putting raised beds in the new area. I've opted for wide rows, intensively planted, instead. Rows that will be anywhere from 2' to 3' wide for easy reaching. I could easily make them up to 10' long. I had already made up my mind to do the same in the old (east) garden, but there the rows could only be 6' or 7' long (and a lot fewer rows). Here is a rough draft of what I could do.

The shaded area at the top left is where the "Kennel Garden" is now. The unused kennel would be moved, and repurposed as a rain/snow free shelter for the dogs next winter, with a tarp over the top, for a place to do their business right off the patio. Spoiled little things just cannot get used to rain and snow! I think the kennel will fit over the lettuce garden behind the shed when not in use. I hope so, I don't want to have to dismantle and then reconstruct it every year, and I don't want to have to mow in and around it all summer. I would use the entire 6' fence line (left, north side of garden) for climbing things, like morning glories, pole beans, cucumbers and peas. The two small plots in the shaded area would work for lettuce and spinach. I'd still have my garden bench in that corner, even though it's a dangerous place to sit when the squirrels start throwing walnuts at my head! The raspberries and strawberries would remain in their raised beds (all the rectangular beds on the left are raised beds). Squash will again be planted in the circle at the bottom left. That gives me room for a lot of 2'-3' wide beds in the new area, with 1'-2' paths between the wide rows. There would also be plenty of room to set a few pots of herbs and/or flowers.

I hope I can stay this excited about it when the hard work begins. The planning is the fun part!

I am excited for you :) After reading through the comments on the previous post and seeing this revised sketch, I do hope you decide to expand your garden. It is a lot of work, but luckily you have help with the hard stuff.

I simply scanned a page from a tablet of graph paper, downloaded some cute veggie pictures and sized them to fit the graph squares, and I keep all the pictures and different sizes of the graph paper in a file where they are easily accessible. To do a garden layout, I just open whatever size graph I want in Paint. The master garden plan takes more than one, copied and pasted together, but I usually it's a 4'x8' or a 4'x4' graph size. Then I find whatever veggie picture I want to insert, copy and paste it onto the graph. Fun, easy, free!

Stay@Home, I blame the weather. Also, there were some heavier crops I didn't grow last year, like potatoes, parsnips, melons. Cucumbers were way down. I have my 2009, 2010 and 2011 harvest totals (by crop) data at

Stay@Home (sorry, I missed your second comment). There will only be about 280 square feet of new garden area, as I'll be eliminating 210 sf of old garden. That is just over double the space I had in the east garden last year, and I could have easily used more room.

This first year, it will be rototilled. In future years it will hopefully be so untrodden and rich with compost that it will need little or no digging. Even at 73, I have no problem with a bit of double digging....I may not be as hale and hearty when I'm 74 ;-) I do 100% of my own gardening, with no help, right now. I will call in the troops for the redo (sod removal, tilling and fence building).

Stefaneener, I also like to trench compost the pathways, then just move everything a foot or two the following year.

********Well, Robin, when I set my mind to something, it usually does get done!

********Daphne, it will give me room to plant potatoes and parsnips, neither of which found a spot in the garden last year. Remember, I lost my east fence bed when Pat sold her house and the neighbor grew invasive weeds and grass. That took away about 80 sf. of planting space. The new area would give me that much back plus another 299 sf. It wouldn't have to all be planted either. Like Stefaneener said, it would give me room to rotate crops if I wanted.

********Barbie, I hope the old rototiller still works! I loaned it out a couple years ago, to a friend of my son, and it worked then. But I haven't used it in like forever. It's over 30 years old, but has always been "garaged". I do know my son drained the gas from it when he brought it back, so hopefully the carburetor won't be all gummed up.